Drexel
University
24/7 SUPPORT FOR
ANYWHERE, ANYTIME
TEACHING AND LEARNING
Limited Resources, Unlimited Demand:
Recognizing the Need to Increase
Student Support
Today’s student lives, works, learns, and communicates
QUICK FACTS
• Blackboard Services/Products: Student
Services, Learn, Mobile, Collaborate
in a technology-driven environment. They want imme-
• Enrollments: 7,500 fully online students
diacy, easy access to information, and support 24/7.
• Headquarters: Philadelphia, PA
Drexel University realized that in order to stay competi-
• Student Population: Worldwide tive, they had to have the services and technology solu-
• Blackboard Student Services client since: 2005
tions to keep up with these increasing needs.
• Size: 100 degrees and certificate
An early innovator with a strong academic reputation,
programs offered by 7 colleges
Drexel University has extended access to working and
adult students by building their offerings to include more
than 100 different fully online degree programs. For
their efforts they earned the Sloan Consortium Award
for Excellence in Institution-Wide Online Education.
To ensure the continued success of their online learners, Drexel Online knew they had to deliver easily
accessible service—24/7. Simple issues like course
availability, assignment upload, and login issues could
emergent student population. When they did the
be the difference between a student succeeding or
math, they realized it was cost prohibitive to hire and
failing. In 2005, with programs and enrollments growing
scale support internally. Outsourcing help desk support
rapidly, their 2-person help desk couldn’t support the
was the easy solution.
blackboard.com/studentservices
The Challenge:
At the time of this decision, Drexel’s marketing campaign was “Learn Anytime, Anywhere.” In order to live
up to that promise and deal with the added pressure
Services, Drexel Online continues to remove technical
barriers to teaching and learning. Their students are
happier and more successful. Their online program is
growing and running more efficiently than ever.
of rapid growth, they had many challenges to address,
By improving their online educational experience,
such as how to:
they’re generating results for all stakeholders:
Support a growing body of non-traditional students
who increasingly expected “Amazon-like” service
Provide consistent, highly-available support despite a
highly-decentralized environment
Gain a better understanding of support needs and
support quality through analytics and data
Remove technical challenges to help full-time and
adjunct faculty focus more on teaching
The Solution:
Drexel chose Blackboard Student Services as their
Students: Offering quick, easy access to the
information and support they need and ensuring they
never feel alone in the learning process
Faculty: Now 100% focused on adding instructional
value to students
Adjunct Faculty: No longer worried about resolving
technical issues while doing their “day jobs”
Internal IT Staff: Focused only on the most complex issues
and escalations, helping improve the teaching experience
Institution’s Bottom Line: Able to expand and can
scale support easily
shared services partner. Three key criteria led them
It’s difficult to keep up with the growing needs of stu-
to this decision. They needed a partner with superior
dents today, especially when your staff is already over-
knowledge of Blackboard products. They wanted a
burdened. By utilizing Blackboard Student Services,
team that was focused solely on education—who really
you’ll have a cost-effective solution to extend your staff
understood the needs of students and faculty. They
and your services. You’ll be able to support students
needed a vendor who had the infrastructure, technol-
on their terms and devices, while preventing technical
ogy, and financial leverage to support rapid growth.
barriers to student success. And by freeing your staff’s
Blackboard Student Services met these needs, and
time to focus on complex issues, you’ll increase the
within a couple months implemented a cost-effective
overall administrative efficiency of your institution.
solution, including:
24/7 Multi-Channel LMS support including chat,
self-service, live tutorials
Dedicated Account Management Team
Robust Self-Service Knowledge Base
See how you can use Blackboard Student Services to
make a measurable and long-lasting impact at your
institution, just like they did at Drexel University, visit
blackboard.com/studentservices.
One centralized number for learners in any
program to call
Shared Service Desk Platform for case management
Monthly Reports and Analytics
The Results:
In an increasingly competitive market, online programs
face significant pressure to provide added value to services that will positively impact student success. Now
A high quality online program
is only as good as the level of
support it provides.
Jack Mayher
VP IT/Operations,
Drexel Online
in its 6th year of partnership with Blackboard Student
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